Eyeball-to-Eyeball with the Whalers In Iceland

By Jonathan Zwick

The list of arguments against whaling long and compelling, but the key point is a shocker.  Yesterday when I went to document the first ships leaving harbor, the first thing I noticed were the massive crowds of tourists boarding and de-boarding whale watching ship after whale watching ship.  Mothers, fathers, brothers, daughters, friends and couples from 2 to 90 years old traveling from countries all over the world.  I watched as they passed right by the HVALUR 8 and HVALUR 9, the ships that were leaving the docks to go and kill the whales the tourists had just enjoyed.  Some of the tourists walked directly into restaurants in the same harbor and ordered the whale they had appreciated just minutes before.

I’m here in Reykjavik to expose this problem, but it has already proven difficult.  There were three separate occasions in three different locations where men in different vehicles approached me as I filmed Hvalur 8 and 9.  A van with three men pulled up directly in front of me and reversed at high speed before slamming on their breaks.  They got out of their car glaring at me until I packed up my gear and left.  Similar instances ensued with an Explorer that pulled up directly in front of me to obstruct my view and a Tourag that did two circles around me, looked me in the face and zoomed off.  It is clear they know their industry is a dying one, and I believe we need to put an immediate end to it via awareness.

                                      Whaler heads out (c) Jonny Zwick 2013

Seeing Hvalur 8 and 9 in the old harbor in Reykjavik for the first time is something that I will never forget.; not due to the ships’ size, design or some other impressive attribute one might remember a ship for, but for the sheer purpose of their existence.  It was the intention that the murderous sea vessels represented that had my skin crawling.  I was entranced by them as they peacefully bobbed back and forth in the early morning, trying to grasp the idea of men blasting explosive harpoons into an endangered species from the platforms I was staring at.  Over the duration of this Icelandic fishing season, Hvalur, the sole whaling company in Iceland, will utilize the very boats I’m describing to slaughter 184 endangered and highly intelligent fin whales and many other minkes.

I arrived in Iceland on Friday,  June 7 and the first of Loftsson’s (CEO of Hvalur) vessels was scheduled for departure the coming Sunday.  After stopping at the harbor, I walked towards my American friend’s apartment where I would be staying in Reykjavik.   I was introduced to the three Icelandic women she lives with, who with utter curiosity, asked, “why the hell did you buy a one-way ticket to Iceland?”  Understanding how sensitive of a subject whaling is in Iceland, I thought I’d keep it to myself that I’d traveled to their country to expose the illogical and internationally illegal practice of hunting whales.  This turned out to be a good decision as one of the girls’ fathers was a professional whale hunter before sustaining a critical injury at sea.  The content I have since collected has been and will continue to be uploaded in coffee shops!

I decided it would be important to see if the majority of the population felt the same as my new Icelandic roommates.  I spoke with young people at bars and at a house party where the general consensus was “whaling is good, the whales eat the fish that we export so we need to kill them.”  This is really their only argument and I followed with a diplomatic barrage of rebuttals that can be broken down in key points:

-Iceland’s global image and reputation will take a large hit and sanctions against their exportation are already being discussed.

-Inhumane to kill intelligent and ancient creatures that have been roaming these oceans for millions of years before humans existed.  The harpoons often miss and lead to a slow, miserable death.

-A lead shareholder in Hvalur has recently admitted that whaling is wrong and archaic, saying it is time for Iceland to move on with the times.

-No country has the right to sacrifice global biodiversity for a marginal profit that has not even been proven.  Whale meat still sits in Hvalur’s freezers from their last hunting season in 2009!

-Japanese companies are using fin whale meat in dog treats.  An endangered species is being fed to pets as a status symbol.

-There will be less whale watching, one of tourism’s biggest industries.  Tourism has increased 300% in two years. 

Hvalur 8 and 9 have each gone out multiple times now, but never at the same time.  They seem to be test runs, and no fin whales are yet to be killed.  That will come soon.

A Dolphin Funeral?

There are so many times that we are made aware of the special nature of dolphins, their physical beauty, their intelligence and even their spiritual nature. I am a sceptic by nature and a journalist with legal training by profession, so when I write of spirituality among dolphins it does not come from my mystical side but from strict observation. Below is a report from Mike Riggs, who observed something marvelous and not a little sad off San Onofre, California.

Last Friday night I went surfing close to San Onofre power plant. When we got there we saw dolphins jumping towards a couple of surfers down the beach. I paddled out just before sunset and a large dolphin jumped towards me. I've seen that a thousand times so I thought it was cool, but no big deal. When I was sitting in the water I looked back at the beach. I noticed a shiny thing a quarter mile down the beach and thought it was a dead seal. I got a wave down
towards it and went in to check it out. It was a large dead dolphin, 7 ft, healthy looking (it was dead but looked well fed, no large injuries.) It looked like its stomach was out of his mouth, and his anal area had spilled out a bit. But it was fully intact, teeth, fins, everything intact. Slightly balloted. (bloated?)

Half hour later the tide came up high enough to bring it back down into the shorebreak a bit. A few minutes after it was bobbing in the shorebreak, 20 dolphins came in to just past where the waves were breaking. I have never seen this, but they stood still in the water, about 15 ft apart, completely stationary with just the tips of their dorsal fins barely above the surface. They stayed 15 ft apart all spaced out, completely still, ALL facing the dead dolphin on the beach/shorebreak. They remained still, facing the dead one for
5 or 6 minutes. They didn't move, stayed evenly spaced apart, all facing in. Then they slowly went back under and slowly swam away as a group.

It truly seemed to me like they were showing respect, almost reverence for the dead one. It was like a dolphin funeral. They weren't being aggressive or curious, they were still, concentrating on the event. It was truly moving. I spend a lot of time on the beach and in the water. I've seen literally thousands of dolphins, and seen them do many things. But this was different. They were concentrating on their positioning, placement, direction they were
facing and each other.

Hardy Speaking in N.E. Florida

I'll be speaking at Ocean Books & Art, 200 S. Oceanshore Blvd.,Flagler Beach FL Fri, 3/22, 6 p.m. "Close Encounters of the Dolphin Kind" http://www.oceanbooksandart.com/book-page.html

Horror and Hope in Peru

BlueVoice has just completed a trip to the northern coast of Peru. We hope you will read the entirety of this blog. It contains information that is deeply disturbing but also offers solutions that are attainable and will provide huge benefits for both dolphins and the indigenous people of the region. BlueVoice, working with the Peruvian NGO ORCA, went to San Jose, a fishing village north of Lima, to document the killing of dolphins for food and to gather information on levels of diabetes that could be linked to consumption of dolphin meat.

We expected the correlation of eating dolphin meat with diabetes incidence to be a complicated epidemiological task. It was not, simply because everyone in the town eats it. One woman, whose father had just died of diabetes, told us “this town is entirely sustained on dolphin meat.” Obviously the take of dolphins is far higher than we’d anticipated but what emerged from our work in San Jose is enormously hopeful. The townspeople are terrified of the epidemic of diabetes that has emerged.

The mayor invited Dr. Carlos Yaipen of ORCA/Peru and BlueVoice executive director Hardy Jones to address a town meeting that included the municipality, coast guard, health department and leaders of the fishing cooperative.

At the end of the meeting, at which Hardy held forth in Spanish for 20 minutes and Carlos spoke for two hours, we signed an official agreement with the town in which the mayor agrees to make all possible efforts to end dolphin killing for the health of the populace and the benefit of the oceans. We have been invited to produce information sheets and conduct presentations to the town. Many of the fishermen have smart phones so we are devising plans to use this technology to reach them. We collected hair samples from ten members of the community and will test them for mercury, and by analogy for organic pollutants. We are now surveying fishing villages along the entire coastline of Peru to determine how widespread is the slaughter of dolphins. We believe the desperate plight of the dolphins and people in the area of San Jose present a problem that demands redress. It also presents an opportunity to create a model that will apply to fishing areas worldwide where dolphins are killed as bushmeat. The clear connection between consuming dolphin meat and incidence of diabetes is a tool we can use to drive down demand for dolphin meat in places such as Taiji. Please support this work with a contribution to BlueVoice. We have never encountered an environmental situation more susceptible to change nor any that is more instructive and applicable worldwide.

Baby Orca Born to Young Mothers From Jeff Friedman, BlueVoice board member This summer there have been 2 orcas born to first time mothers, and both mothers are 11 years old which is definitely on the young side for a first calf. I believe the average age for a first calf is 14-15. They are from different communities – one from the Southern Residents, one from the Northern. A thought I had today – we’ve put a lot of hormones and other chemicals in our food chain that are causing people to sexually mature younger. Wonder if this is an early indicator of this stuff working its way through the oceans, into salmon, into orcas. Something to watch over time, perhaps. Ironically, these 2 calves may have a better chance of survival as first borns with fewer years of built up toxins being offloaded. The births are: 11 year old Southern Resident J37 gave birth to J49 on 8/6/12. 11 year old Northern Resident A75 gave birth earlier this summer to her first calf. Great blog post from Center for Whale Research on the birth and reports of a baby welcoming bonding ritual: http://www.whaleresearch.blogspot.com/2012/08/new-calf-in-j-pod-j49.html

BlueVoice has learned from a highly reliable source that in 2008 there was a mass mortality event (MME) of melon-headed whales (a species of dolphin) on the coast of Madagascar. This source tells me there is suspicion that the cause of the MME was seismic testing that was being conducted in the area. The government of Madagascar has refused access to scientists who wish to investigate. The fact that my source so far wishes to remain anonymous is not a surprise. Scientists do not like even educated speculation. They want all the data and then peer review before attaching their names. It is my responsibility to maintain his/her confidence so as to continue to be able gather information. The importance of this information is that it lends credence to the possibility that seismic exploration, which involves creation of very loud sounds underwater, can be plausibly linked to the mass mortality event in Peru. Much evidence points to the cause of the MME being acoustical trauma leading to rapid ascent and decompression syndrome. No alternative hypothesis has been offered except by the Peruvian government which has attributed the deaths of at least 900 dolphins to "natural causes", a patently absurd assertion. BlueVoice is funding the return of the ORCA team, led by Dr. Carlos Yaipen Llanos, to the coast of northern Peru for further investigation into the hunting of dolphins for food and consequent health problems for those who consume dolphin meat.

Latest Report on Dolphin Mortality in Peru

by Hardy Jones and Dr. Carlos Yaipen Llanos Photo is Dr. Carlos Yaipen Llanos with Ecological Police Officer (c) ORCA. I've just received the latest report from Dr. Carlos Yaipen Llanos of ORCA Peru on the Mass Mortality Event MME along the coast of northern Peru. In his last report to BlueVoice he stated acoustical trauma to be the cause of the MME. He does not identify the cause of this trauma. I should note that some experts on MMEs are skeptical of the diagnosis of acoustical trauma because of the extensive area and length of time over which the MME took place. See http://hardyjonesdolphins.com/blog.html Here are the important elements from Dr. Yaipen Llanos' report. Note in paragraph three the reference to hunting dolphins for food.

By April 13th, ORCA found 53 “new” carcasses of long beaked common dolphins and 6 “new” carcasses of Burmeister’s porpoises that we didn’t count in the previous expedition. We identified “new carcasses” because of their position next to the ocean, the fresh condition of the skin and blubber, and the freshness of the internal organs. Unfortunately for our diagnosis purposes, 90% of them were moderately decomposed due to the action of ocean upon the bodies. These characteristic is also associated to the fact that all dolphins died off-shore. The field difficulties and the body condition of the stranded dolphins made our work difficult, especially when looking for viable-fresh samples. However, we managed to collect samples from 14 dolphins and 1 porpoise, a total of 55 tissues for analysis including periotic bones, mandibular blubber, and internal organs. Brain was successfully collected from a recently stranded newborn porpoise. Blood from two specimens were only viable on site for serology analysis, but blood did not make it back to our home base in Lima due to the condition of the carcasses, and the difficulties to return. As part of the research, we decided to do “control surveys”, on April 14th and April 24th to assess dolphin presence in the beaches of San Jose fishermen town and surroundings (10 Km). We found the carcasses of seven dolphins with evidence of “harvesting”, meaning that they caught off-shore to be slaughtered for human consumption. Despite these dolphin carcasses were fresh, it was a fishermen we paid as guide named “Jose Luis” that took us to the “burial sites”. We found juveniles and adults. These dolphins were stabbed by fishermen in boats and the meat collected for consumption. We checked on the “harvested” dolphin carcasses for samples, however, we found no tissues (all were consumed) but we found intact periotic bones, (with no fractures), so it was a good “control” sample to compare with previously collected (and fractured) ones.